Life as a Announced Death Chronicle

Abstract

          This article looks at several phrases found in Chronicle of a Death Foretold, a novella by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which, when decoded, allow the text to be construed in a different fashion. These phrases are ‘the fig tree’, ‘sediment of copper stirrup on his palate’, and ‘slept … without getting undressed’. They refer the reader to the Book of Genesis, hence, leading them to ask the question that may arise after reading the Bible – “Who is guilty?”. That is also the main question the novella asks, inviting several possible answers: The guilt rests with Santiago Nasar who allegedly sleeps with the girl. The guilt rests with Anjela Vicario who accuses Santiago Nasar of something another man has done. The guilt may rest with man or woman. But the question is who is to blame not for Santiago Nasar’s murder, but for his death. And, in order to provide the right answer, we must revisit the side characters. Who was able and yet failed to save Nasar from the death foretold? The Priest, the Colonel, and the Doctor – in other words the very people whose job, whose direct responsibility consists in saving humans. However, it is the Mother who makes a fatal step leading to Santiago’s doom – she bars the door to her child. So, is the Mother the direct cause of Santiago’s demise? If we attempt to generalize the passage and deem Santiago to be the collective human, we will see that the person directly responsible for death after the man’s expulsion from the Paradise is mother. In other words, it is the person who gives rise to death by giving life and any death foretold is the beginning of life, and the life – a chronicle of death foretold itself.